Park News - NOW OPEN - (9/24/14) Videos and some pictures showing off Sochi Park can be found here which include a look at some of the rides in action, as well as a video of a new style of S&S tower ride that features a bigger tower structure and a round ring of seats as well as our first look at a strange looking ‘drift’ coaster concept in action that looks kind of like a Zamperla Disk’o Coaster with an oval track layout. (7/4/14) The latest update to ThemeparX shows that Sochi Park is now finally open! It looks quite nice inside… now if only they can get people to visit. (2/26/14) A video report has been posted on USA Today showing off the unopened Sochi Park… where they actually name the park’s coasters. Forgive my phonetic spelling but they refer to the Mack made launched coaster as the “Grenish” instead of Dragon, but do still name the Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang as Quantum Leap. They do show footage of people in the park, as it is sort of “soft open” along with a couple of family rides. (2/10/14) According to the latest article from ParkWorld, Sochi Park will not only open during the Winter Olympic games as hoped, but apparently it wont be ready to open at all until sometime between May and June. (2/6/14) With the Winter Olympics from Sochi ready to open to the world on Friday night and the nearby Sochi Park said to be planning to open the following day… I feel I must issue a warning at this time. Over the past day or two various members of the Media have been arriving in Sochi to set up their coverage of the Olympic games… only to find disaster at every turn. Many of the hotels and resorts are not only not quite ready for guests… but are still unfinished in some aspects. So far there have been reports about yellow water from the taps that is not only unsafe to drink, but they are being warned not to even splash it on your face due to the nature of the contamination. Hotel rooms missing light bulbs, doorknobs, TVs, heat… having toilets that are unable to flush… or strange restrooms that have two toilets instead of one… not to mention an army of construction workers still on-site and an unsettling assortment of stay dogs everywhere. On top of these problems… a word of warning. If you go to Sochi… don’t use the internet… or even fire up your smart phone. Russian hackers are launching cyber attacks on every piece of equipment that fires up to a hotspot in Sochi. In a report from CNET and ABC, they turned on a pair of test computers to see what would happen, and they were attacked within the first minute, and completely broken into and vulnerable within 24 hours. Now… while most of this has little to do with Sochi Park… I do think it is worth sending a friendly warning out to anyone who may be planning on visiting the park to be aware during your visit. If the Olympic resort area is experiencing so many problems, I shudder to imagine what kind of corners may have been cut inside the amusement park. Be aware… stay safe… and tell us all about it. (1/30/14) I’m told that Sochi Park is planning on opening the new park on February 8th, the day after the Olympic Opening Ceremony. (1/21/14) A new construction update from Sochi Park has been posted to ThemeparX this week, showing off the final touches being put on the new theme park just ahead of the arrival of tourists from around the world who will come to see the Winter Olympic Games in a matter of days. (1/9/14) Stunning aerial photography posted to ThemeparX from Sochi shows off not only the progress on Sochi Park, but the Winter Olympics site. (12/2/13) All new pictures taken at the Sochi Park construction site were sent in this week, showing off the new Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang appearing to now be fully built and the Mack looping coaster to be at least half way assembled, if not more. (11/1/13) Incredible new construction pictures from Sochi Park show off rapid progress is being made to the park’s roller coasters. Make the jump over to ThemeparX to see. (10/17/13) A reader sent in a new picture from the Sochi Park construction site, featuring workers building footers in the foreground (apparently for the Mouse coaster) while in the background you can see the massive supports for the Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang rising into the sky. (9/23/13) New pictures (see below) showing off very large footers going into place at Sochi Park have been sent in this week. According to our source, these are likely for the Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang coaster. They also breakdown the ride parts by color for us, spotting orange S&S Tower parts, Bright Yellow Mack Wild Mouse parts, Red & Orange pieces of the Mack launched coaster, Purple and Blue pieces for the Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang. (9/20/13) New footage of Sochi Park under construction can be found in this Russian news report that shows off the site as well as lot of brightly painted streel track and support pieces now on site. Jump ahead to the 5:25 mark to get to the park/ride footage. (8/26/13) A Screamscape reader visited the future site of Sochi Park and discovered several different styles of roller coaster track and supports are already on site. The large purple supports are believed to be for the Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang, the yellow supports are for a Mack Mouse coaster, and the large red supports with yellow coaster track are believed to be the Mack Launched coaster. (5/13/13) A few new pictures from the Sochi Park area have been posted to ThemeparX this week. (3/8/13) TheThemeParkGuy is back with a new update all about Sochi-Park now under construction next to the site of the next Winter Olympic Games. (1/2/13) I mentioned back in the IAAPA 2012 coverage in Novmeber but forgot to include it here. In either late 2013 or 2014, S&S Worldwide has confirmed that their first circular 20-seat Combo Tower ride will be going in at the new Sochi Park. (9/12/12) The Theme Park Guy is back with some new pictures of the future Sochi-Park site in Russia. (9/4/12) TheThemeParkGuy has posted posted some on-site pictures from the Sochi-Park area already under construction for the 2014 Winter Olympics this week. Right now the early focus on the overall ocean-front site is the work on the several massive stadiums going on at the same time for the games. They also include pictures of the theme park’s model on display in the visitors center preview building. (8/6/12) According to an update posted to RCDB, Sochi Park Adventureland is said to be under construction in Russia already, looking to open in 2013 with three roller coasters: a Vekoma Giant Inverted Boomerang (aka: Déjà Vu), a Mack Wild Mouse and the previously spotted launched coaster clone of Mack’s Blue Fire. In addition to having an official site online showing off construction pictures of the overall Olympic project, new pieces of artwork and model photos show off the park and Olympic site, along with peeks at numerous other possible rides that may be built at the park. Use an online translator in your browser (like Google Chrome) and you can see the list of lands and attractions further down and at the bottom there are eight animated videos showing off all aspects of the park, including a POV of a coaster ride, and even depicts the top of the park’s drop tower ride to be on fire as a giant Olympic games torch cauldron. (8/2/12) From what I’m told, the 2014 Winter Olympics in Sochi, Russia will prove to be very interesting, and different from what we’ve come to expect from previous Winter Games. Sochi is located right on the Black Sea and apparently has a very mild climate, where the temperature is not known to drop below 50º in the winter, so the Olympic Village will take advantage of this with a lot of fun outdoor activities, warm weather, palm trees and possibly rides and roller coasters. Meanwhile, not far away guests will ascend up into the nearby mountains where the temperature will drop quickly and snow is plentiful for most of the outdoor Olympic games. (8/1/12) A reader sent in this image of a proposed vision for an Olympic Village in Sochi, Russia for the 2014 Winter Olympics. There seem to be an assortment of rides scattered around the layout plan, which I’m not quite sure how that will work for a “Winter” Olympic games event, but see if you can spot the coaster? If I’m not mistaken, that appears to be a clone of Mack’s Blue Fire launched coaster from Europa Park.